Alcalá de los Gazules (Alcalá de los Gazules)
Alcalá de los Gazules is a city and municipality located in the province of Cádiz, Spain. According to the 2006 census, the town has a population of 5,633 inhabitants. Alcalá de los Gazules is situated in the Sierra de Cádiz.
Although not officially one of the pueblos blancos, Alcalá is still listed, since 1984, as having Artistic-Historic status.
Alcalá de los Gazules was first populated by the Romans in CE189 and supplied them with food, oil, wine, and metal. During Roman occupation, the city was known as Lascuta. As the Roman empire weakened, the Vandals moved in and renamed the area Valdalusia but they lasted only twenty years, 409–429. They were followed by the Visigoths who left behind the impressive tower, the Mesa de Esparragal.
For many years until the Catholic Ferdinand and Isabella took control, at the end of the 15th century of the last Muslim kingdom in the south of Spain, there was a demarcation line between the Islamic and Christian regions, along which sat towns that are now known as the pueblos blancos, the white towns, and Alcalá was on the border. Many of these towns were fortified and Alcalá has a number of towers around its perimeter, now fallen into disrepair.
Following the Catholic consolidation in Spain, many mosques were knocked down and in Alcalá, the famous church of San Jorge in the top square was built in the mid-16th century on top of the ruins of the old mosque.
During the Peninsular Wars in 1809 a mounted militia from Alcalá made a successful ambush on some nearby French troops. A year later General Manbourg's troops took revenge by cutting the throats of the entire population and blowing up the castle.
Although not officially one of the pueblos blancos, Alcalá is still listed, since 1984, as having Artistic-Historic status.
Alcalá de los Gazules was first populated by the Romans in CE189 and supplied them with food, oil, wine, and metal. During Roman occupation, the city was known as Lascuta. As the Roman empire weakened, the Vandals moved in and renamed the area Valdalusia but they lasted only twenty years, 409–429. They were followed by the Visigoths who left behind the impressive tower, the Mesa de Esparragal.
For many years until the Catholic Ferdinand and Isabella took control, at the end of the 15th century of the last Muslim kingdom in the south of Spain, there was a demarcation line between the Islamic and Christian regions, along which sat towns that are now known as the pueblos blancos, the white towns, and Alcalá was on the border. Many of these towns were fortified and Alcalá has a number of towers around its perimeter, now fallen into disrepair.
Following the Catholic consolidation in Spain, many mosques were knocked down and in Alcalá, the famous church of San Jorge in the top square was built in the mid-16th century on top of the ruins of the old mosque.
During the Peninsular Wars in 1809 a mounted militia from Alcalá made a successful ambush on some nearby French troops. A year later General Manbourg's troops took revenge by cutting the throats of the entire population and blowing up the castle.
Map - Alcalá de los Gazules (Alcalá de los Gazules)
Map
Country - Spain
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| Flag of Spain | |
Anatomically modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 42,000 years ago. The ancient Iberian and Celtic tribes, along with other pre-Roman peoples, dwelled the territory maintaining contacts with foreign Mediterranean cultures. The Roman conquest and colonization of the peninsula (Hispania) ensued, bringing the Romanization of the population. Receding of Western Roman imperial authority ushered in the migration of different non-Roman peoples from Central and Northern Europe with the Visigoths as the dominant power in the peninsula by the fifth century. In the early eighth century, most of the peninsula was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate, and during early Islamic rule, Al-Andalus became a dominant peninsular power centered in Córdoba. Several Christian kingdoms emerged in Northern Iberia, chief among them León, Castile, Aragon, Portugal, and Navarre made an intermittent southward military expansion, known as Reconquista, repelling the Islamic rule in Iberia, which culminated with the Christian seizure of the Emirate of Granada in 1492. Jews and Muslims were forced to choose between conversion to Catholicism or expulsion, and eventually the converts were expelled through different royal decrees.
Currency / Language
| ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| EUR | Euro | € | 2 |
| ISO | Language |
|---|---|
| EU | Basque language |
| CA | Catalan language |
| GL | Galician language |
| OC | Occitan language |
| ES | Spanish language |
